3 ms·

Thought provoking post, but the idea doesn't work. Yes, people are less inclined to get into arguments about specific technical tools if they are not educated a

Thought provoking post, but the idea doesn't work. Yes, people are less inclined to get into arguments about specific technical tools if they are not educated about them. Yes, people DO get into arguments about religion even if they aren't educated about it. The difference is that religion addresses matters that ARE central to people's identity. It addresses choices that EVERYONE must make, and therefore everyone has a stake in it, unlike an arcane programming language that only impacts a few people.

trees101 4y ago
There could be a hidden assumption behind Graham's idea, which is that everyone (that matters) shares his beliefs. Often in the West, secular liberalism is the assumed religion and news articles, books, conversations all implicitly assume it. To people completely immersed in this paradigm, religion is merely external decoration, like a costume, that is exterior to an assumed identical core belief. People who make this assumption got a rude shock around the time of the ISIS attacks, when they found that some people who grew up in French housing estates behaved in extremely strange and troubling ways. Ideas have consequences, and religion is the set of ideas about the matters of utmost consequence. These ideas are inherently part of people's identity.
tshadley 4y ago
> The difference is that religion addresses matters that ARE central to people's identity. It addresses choices that EVERYONE must make In the essay, identity is associated with a particular religious/political/social perspective on the human condition, not the human condition itself. Keeping identity small is basically converging on "being human"-- the choices everyone must make as you note -- without the false certainty that comes with loyalty to a religious/political/social identity.

3 ms·

Thought provoking post, but the idea doesn't work. Yes, people are less inclined to get into arguments about specific technical tools if they are not educated a

by trees101 4y ago

trees101 4y ago
There could be a hidden assumption behind Graham's idea, which is that everyone (that matters) shares his beliefs. Often in the West, secular liberalism is the assumed religion and news articles, books, conversations all implicitly assume it. To people completely immersed in this paradigm, religion is merely external decoration, like a costume, that is exterior to an assumed identical core belief. People who make this assumption got a rude shock around the time of the ISIS attacks, when they found that some people who grew up in French housing estates behaved in extremely strange and troubling ways. Ideas have consequences, and religion is the set of ideas about the matters of utmost consequence. These ideas are inherently part of people's identity.
tshadley 4y ago
> The difference is that religion addresses matters that ARE central to people's identity. It addresses choices that EVERYONE must make In the essay, identity is associated with a particular religious/political/social perspective on the human condition, not the human condition itself. Keeping identity small is basically converging on "being human"-- the choices everyone must make as you note -- without the false certainty that comes with loyalty to a religious/political/social identity.